BIRMINGHAM, Alabama – The distinctive baritone voice on the other end of the line had an intense familiarity. It could have been your grandfather or great uncle expounding wisdom, homespun advice, old song lyrics and thoughts on life.

Keillor has been communicating this way for more than four decades through songs, stories, dramatic readings and reminiscences of his home town, the fictitious Lake Wobegon, Minn. He has written numerous books and newspaper articles, but is best known, of course, for the long-running radio program, “A Prairie Home Companion.” A staple of public radio, it has spawned recurring comedic sketches such as “Guy Noir,” “Lives of the Cowboys” and “The News from Lake Wobegon,” and such “sponsors” as the Ketchup Advisory Board, Bertha's Kitty Boutique and the American Duct Tape Council. Musical guests have ranged from the world's top classical artists to country, folk and pop stars.Along the way he has picked up a National Humanities Award, awards from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and Steinbeck, Grammy and Peabody awards. His name even appears on “Welcome to Minnesota” signs at interstate rest areas.

Presented by: Orlean Bullard Beeson School of Education, as part of the Tom and Marla Corts Distinguished Authors Series.

On Monday, March 25, Keillor will bring several supporting cast members from the radio program to the Wright Center at Samford University for “A Brand New Retrospective.” Richard Dworsky, Rob Fisher, and Christine DiGiallonardo will join for hymns, jingles, limericks, blues, rags, Tchaikovsky, Dvořák and Beethoven.

Keillor last appeared in Birmingham in 2008, for a solo performance of songs and stories. Like that show, this one will not be a live radio performance of APHC. But Keillor fondly remembers a live show from Birmingham 20 years ago this month that turned into one of his most memorable. Last week he talked about it, reflected on his life in radio, and delved into some truths.

Q. You recently traveled to Europe. Were you performing?

A. No, although I would if I had been asked. I went over on a sibling trip. My siblings and I like to travel together. We had breakfast every day, and were free to walk around. In my case, I sat in a little library off Trafalgar Square and wrote in a legal pad.

Christine DiGiallonardo and Garrison Keillor.

Q. Sounds like a good life.

A. It is. And people don't often understand that. You say you want to go to work and they figure that's some kind of punishment.

A. It was a great snow storm. We came in the day before the (sold out) show, which was at the Alabama Theatre, and were snowbound in Birmingham for three or four days. Emmy Lou Harris, who grew up in Birmingham, came in on the bus and arrived about a half hour into the show. She just strode out on stage, people applauded, she walked up to the microphone and she and I sang a duet. I think we sang, “There's a dark and stormy side of life, there's a sunny side, too. Though we meet with the darkness and strife, the sunny side we also may view.” I think the theater was about half full. Of course, the people who did come were terribly proud of themselves.

Q. For your 70th birthday celebration last year, you performed with the New York Philharmonic. Will your show next week be similar?

A. Yes. It's a man doing a free form reminiscence with songs. The songs range from hymn tunes to pop songs, piano bench songs and a few songs we thought were risqué back in the day, but are rather mild today. Lyrics like, “Passengers will please refrain from flushing toilets while the train is standing in the station. I love you.” “When the train is in the station you must practice constipation. If the train can't move, then why should you?” Sung to Dvorak. We loved limericks back then. Some were borderline risqué: “There was a young girl from Saint Paul, who attended a newspaper ball. Her dress caught on fire and burned her entire, front page sporting section and all.” I guess we thought we knew what was meant by “sporting section.”

Q. You started in radio in the late 1960s, when television was in its heyday. Why radio?

Rob Fisher

A. I went into radio because I was able to get a job in radio. If you start out at a small enough station, you can start at the top. They need somebody to go on the air, so if you're willing to get up at 4 o'clock in the morning to start a 5 a.m. shift, you've got yourself a job. You learn by doing it. I started when I was 18, editing teletype copy. They discovered in the spring of that year that the transmitter had been out, so I had been giving the news 15 minutes a day, talking to myself. It was kind of a closed circuit.

Q. You have brought radio drama to a level it hasn't reached in many years.

A. That’s because I have this great sound effects man named Fred Newman, who does all of the animals. He can have a dolphin sing Barry Manilow or a humpback whale doing Grateful Dead songs. Gunshots? No problem. A whip cracking. Earthquakes. He does the greatest pterodactyl in the history of radio. I talk slowly, and because it’s stories, everybody can pick them up. You don’t need to know a whole lot of language.

Q. How has the internet affected your reading and writing habits?A. There's a lot of terrific writing online, but it's not always easy to find. In the meantime, this new invention has addictive properties. You sit down to look at the news and before long you've been sitting at the screen for an hour and a half and you're unable to account for what you've done. You've been touring through YouTube and looking at videos of cats or Bing Crosby and the Rhythm Boys. That's OK for people who are 13 or 14 and have time to kill. I'm 70 years old and I still have a lot I want to get done in the world.

Q. How has it affected APHC?

A. The internet has been very kind to radio. With a show like ours, suddenly you've got listeners in Malaysia or Ukraine. The show has a lot of spoken word and none of it is that topical. We don't do insider, hip gossip. A lot of it is about raising crops and children and animals. We have Somali cab drivers who are listening to the “News from Lake Wobegon” because they want to improve their American English.

Q. Do the values and memories you stir through APHC have universal appeal?

A. They do. We all passed through these experiences in our childhood. We thought they were unique to us – of feeling lonely and separate from the group, anxious about whether people like us or not. Those are universal things. When you get older and go to high school reunions, you discover that everyone in your class – people you thought of as very popular – still thought of themselves as outcasts. Don't take things personally. Winter is not a personal experience. Everybody else is just as cold as you are.

Q. You have talked about retirement on a few occasions. Any plans at this point?

A. I don't have any plans. I've been doing the show for almost 40 years and I feel I'm just getting the hang of it. I'm not kidding when I say that. If you are on the verge of being able to do something, it's no time to retire.